


undisclosed location

by shanlyrical



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Captivity, F/F, Hopeful Ending, Order 66, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2019-07-05 10:30:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15861816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shanlyrical/pseuds/shanlyrical
Summary: In an undisclosed sector of the galaxy, in an undisclosed solar system, in an undisclosed location on an unnamed moon orbiting an unnamed planet, there is a secret penitentiary.





	undisclosed location

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darlingargents](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/gifts).



In an undisclosed sector of the galaxy, in an undisclosed solar system, in an undisclosed location on an unnamed moon orbiting an unnamed planet, there is a secret penitentiary. It belongs to the Galactic Republic, but it is operated by Intellisystems Ltd. of Corellia, a private, for-profit paramilitary contractor, and it exists for one purpose and one purpose only:

The permanent, lifetime imprisonment of Force-sensitive beings accused, tried, and convicted of capital crimes. Crimes like conspiracy to overthrow a democratically elected government, say, or like attempted assassination of an elected high official.

Crimes like treason.

Barriss Offee doesn’t know how many beings are imprisoned here. A hundred? A thousand? Ten thousand? Only one? Maybe she’s all by herself. It’s possible. Since her arrival, she has neither glimpsed nor otherwise sensed the presence of another living soul in the immediate proximity. The facility is run entirely by droids.

With the exception of a standard half-hour daily for light exercise, she not permitted to leave her cell. It’s where she eats, drinks, bathes, relieves herself, sleeps. The days blur together. She’s lost track of how many weeks, months, or even years have passed. She has memorized every single tiny imperfection in its blank, permacrete walls.

Sometimes, she wonders why they didn’t just execute her. Sometimes, she wishes they had.

She doesn’t want to go on living. She imagines killing herself. By the infernal fires of Mustafar! If they won’t finish the job, she’d be delighted to do it for them! She could try to strangle herself with a bed sheet. She could try to go on a hunger strike. She could try to tear her own heart out of her chest with her fingernails.

None of these techniques would succeed, unfortunately. She has been placed on suicide watch protocol – she’d seen it spelled out in bright, bold letters on the security droids’ subroutine lists. She is being watched constantly.

“I miss you,” Barriss says to Ahsoka. “I’m sorry.”

The Ahsoka of her memories – of her most precious fantasies – smiles and replies, “I know, and I forgive you.”

On very rare occasions, Barriss slips a hand between her legs and allows herself to dissolve.

* * *

She is eating the dredges of a bowl of tasteless protein and vitamin sludge when it happens:

The destruction of the Jedi Order has begun.

Barriss wishes she were surprised.

Some hardly have time to sense the doom that’s coming, their lives snuffed out fast, like candle flames deprived of oxygen. Others have time and the wherewithal to fight, and they too die. Still others are smart enough to flee, but they are hunted down, and they too die. Some give up the ghost willingly, at peace with themselves and their fate, but many others meet their ends angry and afraid as the darkness engulfs them.

Although she had been expecting this turn of events, she hadn’t understood what it would mean to be alone. Not in her heart of hearts. Not truly. Now, though, with Jedi dead, she does understand. She understands all too well.

The darkness threatens to engulf and overwhelm Barriss’s mind as well, even here in her secret penitentiary in its undisclosed location. Psychic backlash in the Force, powerful enough, violent enough, to induce permanent catatonia. She doesn’t fight it. She welcomes the silence and the nothingness, falling over her consciousness like a thick, soft blanket.

May she sleep forever.

* * *

For many years afterwards, she likes to say that she was awakened by true love’s kiss. Poetic license, of course – it isn’t strictly true.

Barriss Offee lurches upright in response to the urgent hands on her shoulders. She is being shaken. Roughly. By…by…by…

By Ahsoka Tano. Not a memory or a fantasy. Barriss blinks, trying to focus. The artificial lighting is harsh, stinging; her vision is cloudy. Yes. Older. Taller. _Real_.

“I’m sorry,” Barriss begins, her mouth dry, voice cracking and hoarse from disuse.

“I know, and I forgive you,” Ahsoka replies, shouting now over screeching alarms. _Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Secure the prisoners! Secure the prisoners!_ “But we really shouldn’t talk right now. I’m breaking you out of here, if you haven’t noticed, and I’m in a bit of a hurry. Your skills are needed.”

“Where are we going?” Barriss asks as she makes to stand. Her joints are stiff; her legs are wobbly, weak. Ahsoka has to catch her so that she doesn’t go crashing face first to the floor.

“Undisclosed location. Top secret. Too much surveillance here. The Rebellion has taken an interest in you. I’ll explain later.”

The Rebellion…? Which Rebellion would this be…? Hadn’t her acts of rebellion against the Republic been the reason why she was imprisoned in the first place? She is baffled; history has passed her by while she slept. And she’s being taken to _another_ undisclosed location? Ah well. She can live with everything she doesn’t yet know. Just as long as she isn’t alone.

And, as she gazes into Ahsoka’s big, blue eyes, she knows that she won’t be. Her heart swells, hot and tight in her chest, pain and pleasure mingled. No, not anymore.


End file.
